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California’s
first micro-concentrator solar cooling demonstration was recently installed
at Santa Clara University’s Solar Decathlon House, a solar-powered house that
won third place in the 2007 contest.

California’s
first micro-concentrator (MCT) solar cooling demonstration was recently installed
at Santa Clara University’s Solar Decathlon House, a solar-powered house that
won third place in the 2007 contest. Industrial rooftop solar solutions company
Chromasun partnered with solar thermal technology company SunWater Solar to
provide clean, renewable thermal energy for air conditioning, space heating and
hot water.

The
low-profile, utility-scale MCT module is a flat-panel solar thermal collector
that can achieve a concentration of 25 times the sun using lightweight, highly
reflective mirrors, which pivot in unison to follow the sun, Chromasun stated. Solar energy is collected from the mirrors by
a selectively coated, stainless-steel receiver pipe to efficiently generate
temperatures in fluid (such as water and saturated steam) up to 220 degrees C
(428 degrees F).

The
MCT is rooftop-mounted on similar racking systems as conventional solar thermal
collectors.

“We
can use this technology to demonstrate and explain to students newer ways to
collect solar thermal energy, and collect and measure data in real time,” said
Professor Timothy Hight, department chair of mechanical engineering at SCU.

“Solar
thermal technology is already proven as a cost-effective way to heat water for
commercial and industrial facilities,” said Justin Weil, president of SunWater
Solar. “Our work with Chromasun is demonstrating that solar thermal is also an
efficient way to cool large buildings, which brings the technology’s financial
and environmental benefits to an innovative new application.”

The
2007 solar-powered house at Santa Clara University is the result of a
collaboration between more than 80 students from the university’s engineering
school. The house generates enough electricity to run a modern household. The
solar house is located on campus and serves as a demonstration project for area
schools and students interested in alternative energy, and learning about
sustainability challenges and solutions.

2011 Solar Decathlon Student Teams

The
next Solar Decathlon held at the National Mall in Washington is scheduled for
fall 2011. Twenty collegiate teams were
selected to compete:

Appalachian State University (Boone, N.C.)

City College of New York (New York)

Florida International University (Miami)

Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida
and University of South Florida (Tallahassee, Orlando, Gainesville and Tampa,
Fla.)

Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium)

Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and University of Massachusetts at
Lowell (Boston and Lowell, Mass.)

Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vt.)

Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio)

Old Dominion University and Hampton University (Norfolk and Hampton, Va.)

Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.)

Rutgers the State University of New Jersey and New Jersey Institute of
Technology (New Brunswick and Newark, N.J.)

Stevens Institute of Technology and The New School (Hoboken, N.J., and New
York)

Tongji University (Shanghai, China)

University of Calgary (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

University of Hawaii (Honolulu)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, Ill.)

University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)

University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.)

Victoria University of Wellington (Wellington, New Zealand)

The
selected teams and their projects represent a diverse range of design
approaches, building technologies and geographic locations, climates and
regions - including urban, suburban and rural settings. They also aim to
reach a broad range of target housing markets, including low-income, disaster
relief and retirement.

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